


Pickup

by WoffWoff



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Car Accidents, Gen, Long-Distance Relationship, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-03
Updated: 2015-10-03
Packaged: 2018-04-24 15:09:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4924342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WoffWoff/pseuds/WoffWoff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren and Mikasa are gone away, and Jean doesn't know if Armin alone can keep him together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pickup

**Author's Note:**

> i keep writing and i'm still shit lmfao  
> i hope you guys like this one! i've been working on doing something for this ot3, so here!  
> it was meant to be a lil short something, but i just...kept going.
> 
> comments are always appreciated! thank you guys! <3

Armin’s truck was given to him by his grandpa. It was a 1994 Chevy Silverado that sported stepsides, and was lifted. And red. The red was fading, but Armin had been saying for two years now that he’d get it repainted (“Maybe not red again, not fully. I think it would look nice red and black.”). On the back, there was a sharpie doodle of a fat rat eating triangles that were supposed to be Doritos, courtesy of Eren.

Jean didn’t think the truck fit Armin when he got it in high school, junior year. It might have just been Jean’s personal taste, but the thing was clunky and ugly to him. And red. He wouldn’t ever be found dead or dying in a red car. Eren and Jean had even spent hours on the weekend sometimes helping Armin fix the damn thing whenever it tried to check out. But now, after three years of seeing the slim blond boy hop out the cab, Jean felt like there was no other car for Armin.

“You wanna give it a shot, Jean?” Armin’s voice seemed loud in the quiet, wooded backyard. When Jean turned his head to glance back at him, Armin was looking away from him, carefully leaning off the wood picnic-style table to set a soda bottle on the ground. Jean wondered out loud why he didn’t just set on the fucking table. Armin sucked his teeth. “I wasn’t thinking.”

Jean waited until Armin was at his side, the right side, the side with his arm in a thick, green cast (Eren said it was a blue, but Eren was kind of colorblind). “Are we going anywhere?” He stared at the truck.

Armin shrugged lightly and Jean could feel him watching his face. “Not unless you had someplace in mind.” He started walking towards the car after seeing Jean shake his head. His footfalls in the grass made that hissing sound; he would have to remember to cut the grass later.

Jean made his way around to the passenger side around the back. When he passed by it, he tapped the sharpie rat with his middle finger affectionately. Armin, already in the truck, leaned over to open his door, and Jean paused.

“Jean?” Armin was watching his face again.

Jean peered in, his eyes taking in the interior of the Chevy. He’d been in this truck plenty of times, he knew it by heart. But he just had to look at it anyway. It didn’t look a thing like the inside of his Lincoln (crumpled, squashed). But that was a bit of a comfort, when before it would have turned him off from getting in.

He gave Armin a curt nod. “I’m alright.” He ambled into the seat. The sound of the door shutting seemed definite, like he was trapped. He cleared his throat and looked at Armin. Who was looking at him. “Hm?”

Armin raised his eyebrows. “Seatbelt.”

Jean rolled his eyes but his stomach turned slightly in his stomach. His mind raced, flashes of lights, the glint of metal, rubber screeching, and at the back of his head were words in rotation-- lucky, stupid, dead, lucky, stupid, dead. He put his seatbelt on. “Alright,” he drawled, looking over at Armin. Armin was staring at his phone. “What’s up?”

“Eren wants to talk to you.” Armin’s thumb was poised over the send button. Jean couldn’t make out the message. “You want to...do this first or can he call now?” Armin tilted his head so he could look at Jean.

“Yeah,” Jean barely whispered. “Yeah,” he tried again, louder. “Yeah, I mean, we haven’t seen the idiot in a while." It was a struggle not to say forever. "This can wait.” He saw Armin’s smile and met it with practiced indifference.

Shortly after Armin sent the message, his phone started buzzing. Jean watched with an excited flutter in his heart as Armin answered and set the phone on speaker. “Eren?” It seemed like a lifetime ago Jean heard Armin speak Eren’s name and actually be talking to him, not just about him.

“Uh, can you guys hear me?”

Jean could only swallow, the swelling of his heart threatening tears to go with it. Armin, on the other hand, giggled fondly. “We can hear you just fine, Eren.”

“Oh, okay that’s good.” There was a muffled shifting sound. “Is Jean there?”

Jean didn’t realize he’d been holding his breath. “I’m here.”

“What took you so long to speak?” Another rustling sound. “It’s _rude_ not to answer someone.” The rustling continued.

“You don’t need _two_ people to tell you they can hear you, asshole. And you didn’t even say _hello_ when you picked up, if you wanna go into phone courtesies.” Arguing with Eren set something back into place for Jean. He could hear Arming laughing beside him. For a second, he forgot why he was in the truck. “And what the hell is that sound, what are you doing?”

“I’m changing my shirt, hold on.” Eren came back following the sound of a drawer slamming. “I went swimming out by a lake earlier and just got in. How have you two been?”

“Okay?” Armin answered. “I started college and it’s really fun so far.”

“Is anyone there, like, not cool?” Eren’s voice sounded serious. “Like, is anyone-”

“Oh my _God_ ,” Armin groaned. “I can take care of myself, you’re acting just like Jean when I came back my first week.”

“Sorry,” a sheepish tone. “I was just making sure. Uh, Mikasa said she applied for the same school as you but then we moved.”

“Yeah, she did.” Armin sounded so sad. “We were gonna room together.”

“She misses you. She was _really_ upset about it, too. But, uh, now she’s going to some pretty, uh, uh-- _prestigious_ school here. They took her right after the interview, you know. They _know_ she’s smart.” The affection in his voice was obvious. Jean realized he missed Mikasa just as much as Eren.

“So...what are you doing, then? What’s Austria like?”

Eren coughed loudly. “Well, I’m training to be a federal officer. I thought of joining the military but Mom didn’t want me to.” He sniffed. “Uh, Austria is...I mean, it’s not _home_ but I do like it. I really miss you guys.”

“Eren-”

“It’s beautiful here,” he sighed. “But I really, really miss you and Jean.” He paused. “Jean?”

“I’m still here.” Jean shifted to lean over on his good arm. “I’m not in college like those two bookworms”-- Armin sucked his teeth and Eren chuckled --“but I’m still figuring it out.”

“I mean, you’re like rich, so.”

Jean rolled his eyes. “For now, I’m at that music store. Remember? Where you found that album you like so much?”

“Oh yeah, I love that place! And I still have that album, you know.”

“You can barely understand anything on it,” Armin recalled Eren singing the bare phonetics of  the dancey tracks because he couldn’t speak English.  
  
“Yeah but I still like it. I’ve been learning some of the words.” He huffed and coughed again. Before Armin could ask, he blurted out, “I think I’m getting sick. Probably from being away from you two for so long.”

“Oh, _come_ on,” Jean grimaced, laughing inwardly at Armin’s sympathetic “aww”. “ _Don’t_ with the mushy stuff, Eren.”

“I’m serious, you know. Well,” Eren cleared his throat. “About missing you two, I mean. I hope I get to see you two, soon. Are you doing okay, Jean?”

Jean remembered why he was in the truck again. He shrugged the shoulder belonging to the arm in the cast, even though he knew Eren wouldn’t see it. “I’m doing okay.”

_I miss you, too._

“My car could be fixed, but it’s a shitload of repairs and I might just scrap it.”

_I really wish you were here, with me and Armin. I feel lost._

“The cast’ll be off soon, though. So, that’s something to look forward to.”

_I don’t know what to do once I’m over this. I’m distracted for now, with this stupid cast and the want to throw up when a car turns the corner, but when this passes, I’ll miss you. Armin’s at college and I don’t see him as much I used to. He misses you, too, but he’s trying to be strong about it. I can’t help. I can’t be strong like that, either. Just come back._

“I’m glad to hear you’re doing better.” Eren couldn’t see Armin blinking back tears. Jean wondered if Eren was alright, if he was holding it together over there. “I’m sorry I couldn’t see you in the hospital, I really _did_ try, Jean-”

“It’s okay. Stop...stop that. It’s fine.” Jean sat up to pop his elbow. “You’re in another country, I don’t expect you to just drop everything for me.”

_But I wish you would._

“I know, I just...when Armin called me, I didn’t want you to think that I didn’t care.” He sighed. There was a short moment before he added, “Jean, I was scared.” His voice cracked, and Jean’s heart felt like it was being squeezed. “I was really scared, and worried that if something happened I wouldn’t be there.”

Jean couldn’t answer, he could hear Eren sniffle over the phone. He forced himself to laugh. “Crybaby.”

Quiet. Then Eren chuckled, “Asshole.”

“Eren, I really am alright. Come see us, soon.” Jean scratched behind his ear and ducked his head. “Please.”

Eren made some kind of sound, almost like he was forcing back a sneeze. “I will. Yeah, of course. It’ll probably be around winter, my schedule looks free then. I can’t wait to see you two.”

“You too, Eren.” Armin’s eyes had cleared up. “I love you.”

“I love you, too. _Both_ of you.” He laughed. “Cause I know Jean won’t say it, but I know. I’ll try not to wait so long to call again.”

“Later, Eren.” Jean smiled faintly.

“Later.”

Armin hesitated to press end. Jean sighed as they unwound from the call. It seemed like talking with Eren refreshed the hurt, but somehow, it made the missing him part a little easier. Jean was irked with how that worked in his head. He just wanted it to stop, for Eren to be between him and Armin again, so he could stop worrying about getting lost or forgotten.

A faint jingling caught Jean’s attention. Armin was smiling at him, and holding up the keys to the truck. Oh, right. Jean had forgotten again why he’d gotten in the truck.

“I think we should give it a shot now.” Armin lowered the keys into his lap, blue eyes looking Jean over.

Jean thought of saying he was tired, to use as an excuse to go home. But he thought of Eren, and how Armin was smiling again like he used to, like he _really_ used to. He could stay in the truck. “Turn it on.”

The engine revved up, and Jean thought of Eren when his heart began to hammer. He thought of the three of them, together again, while Armin backed the truck out the yard. As the tires bounced off the curb and onto the street, Jean’s heartbeat settled. His eyes quickly stopped searching for cars that weren’t there, and he let them fall on Armin.

Armin looked happy, or maybe relieved. Even the way he was driving, more relaxed and upright, made it seem as if there was a weight that had been lifted off him. His light hair was blowing back from his face, and his blue eyes were catching the last of the sunlight.

With furrowed eyebrows, Armin glanced at Jean before locking his eyes back on the road. “I thought I felt you looking at me. You okay?”

Jean nodded, slouching on his good side. “I might go to sleep.” It seemed as soon as he said it, his body felt heavy. He didn’t want to move. It became a chore to keep his eyes open. He closed them. Behind his lids, he could still see the sunlight breaking through the trees and houses.

When Armin spoke, he was near silent, as if worried Jean was already sleep and he’d wake him. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”


End file.
